BDSP BDSP Appreciation thread

[Boss1708]

I am making this thread for all those people who, like me, feel uncomfortable talking about BDSP in other threads, due to the overwhelming negativity there. Negativity that I find completely unjustified for the most part.

So, this thread is for those of us who think BDSP is a great game, and are really enjoying it! Personally, I downloaded Shining Pearl today, and I'm very happy with it sofar. The game is great, and I can't wait to get further into this vast beautiful region that is Sinnoh!

 

[Greninjaman]

I like the fact that the Gym Leaders gave me more of a challenge. I don't remember when I last lost to a Gym Leader on a first play through. Same with the league. Lucian and Cynthia both kicked my butt, with Cynthia out right beating me the first time.

 

[wanderist]

While I have some annoyances with it, I've been enjoying it overall. It's been fun going through Sinnoh on the Switch and the game is so much faster and easier for me to play than DPPt was. The artstyle has grown on me and it looked really good after actually getting to see it on screen to me. The Grand Underground is pretty good, mining is fun and you can get some decent stuff early on from it and the hideaways are really cool and give some nice extra team choices. I'm pretty sure a good chunk of my playtime came from just running around down there.

I think one of my favorite things is how early you get access to the ball capsules and how easily you can edit them and assign them right from the menu. I've had much more fun designing them than I did back in DDPt. It's also much easier to get stickers much earlier than I remember, with Gym Leaders even using them and giving you some of theirs.

Spoiler: post game just in case

I haven't gotten even close to doing all there is do in the post game, but the rematches I've done so far have been interesting. Roark dang near beat me and Maylene's Medicham and Heracross completely destroyed me. Also while it's a minor thing I really like how you can battle Lucas/Dawn in the post-game.

 

[pokemoll]

I love that I'm actually feeling challenged by battles in this game, for the first time in a LONG time; I can't remember the last time I wiped against a Gym Leader, but Maylene really gave me trouble on my first attempt! QwQ They still aren't difficult per se, no, but I am having to put thought into my moves and strategise somewhat, where in the past few games I've felt like I can just do whatever I want to with minimal effort and blitz right through each trainer battle. The E4 may not be as tough as they were originally, no, but I'm still having to pay attention and focus when battling them, which is refreshing.

Aside from that, I really, really love the atmosphere of these games; it feels like I'm coming home. They've captured the wonder and mystique of the Sinnoh region perfectly (yes, probably because it's a direct remake, shh), and I'm really growing fond of the chibi art style for the overworld - and the models for battles are a great touch; I love how distinct and unique all the trainers feel, with their varying expressions and poses and whatnot. I feel like these games have a lot to offer and love, personally.

 

[Boss1708]

Personally, my favorite things about BDSP are:

• The graphics and art style: I still can't believe there are so many people complaining about this. The game looks absolutely ADORABLE! What's not to love about an HD Chibi world?
• The whole game atmosphere is spot on.
• The Hideaways in the Grand Underground add all possible biomes to Sinnoh, including the ones Sinnoh originally lacked. So now Sinnoh feels more complete and diverse than ever before.
• I absolutely love what they did with the Battle Tower, having all the Gym Leaders, E4, Cynthia, Team Galactic and Stat Trainers serve as Boss Battle's throughout Master Class, along with Palmer (and Barry!). I also love how challenging they made the rematches outside of the Battle Tower, too! Cynthia with a level 88 Garchomp is glorious!

 

[Puddle]

This is a much-needed thread! Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are very underrated games. The chibi models are really cute and I think they actually work better than the Gen 6 ones. The battle graphics are the best we've ever seen in a mainline Pokemon game. The overworld looks lovely too - the lighting and the ripples in the water are really lifelike.

The new Hidden Move system makes Sinnoh so much more relaxing and convenient to explore. Most impressive of all, though, is that they managed to turn the Underground - a feature I used to find incredibly dull - into something really fun and engaging. They even went out of their way to include two much-loved features from HeartGold and SoulSilver - Pokemon following you, and an item that plays the classic music.

There's a few flaws, like the absence of certain quality-of-life features (TMs are single-use and the Move Relearner requires Heart Scales again) and some of the content from Platinum, but the positives far outweight the negatives for me.

 

[TheCapsFan]

There's a lot to love about BDSP!! I personally think the games look great, and that the chibi art style fits the scope of the world to keep it feeling grand and expansive. Not to mention the details in the backgrounds and on the facial expressions of the models. I also like most of the quality of life improvements - most specifically, the portable access to boxes, relegation of hidden moves to the pokedex, berries showing up on your town map, and others. I even like (and this may be a bit of a hot take) the EXP share. Having that included with the portable box system has allowed me to use many more Pokemon during this playthrough than I ever would have thought of using in the first game; I started with a rotation of about 15, and now I've narrowed it down to about 10. The music is also a great remaster of what was an AMAZING OST in the originals; notable favorites of mine so far are the remastered Lake theme, Eterna Forest, Veilstone City, and Route 216.

As I've said in another post with my first impressions - it's fine to be nitpicky, but when critiquing a game, you can't forget to also highlight the stuff you like about it; frankly, it's kind of ridiculous to think that you'd absolutely hate all parts of a game unless the game gives you a reason to.

 

[GhostLucario]

DPP were always some of my favorites but this game really blows them out of the water. They are so much better. They're much faster and the QoL improvements really made the game better.
The battle backgrounds are gorgeous except the cities because there are none lol
The music is pretty good.
The AI for the gym leaders and team galactic is pretty good. I've found some gym leaders harder than the originals because now they really take advantage of their held items, moves and abilities.
The GU is not my thing but i can't deny that it's helpful and the biomes look really good.
Overall I've liked them a lot, these are my favorites games since gen 6. They're not perfect but I guess nothing is.

 

[CynthiaLover]

These games are some of the best remakes we've had since ORAS. They're very underrated. While I still have some issues with the chibi models I do admit they work for these particular games. Plus, unlike ORAS, we have character customization, with both males and females FINALLY getting equal billing there, and can even select various skin/hair tones at the start of the game. That's a much-needed plus and an advantage over other remakes.

The various trainers, especially the Gym Leaders and Team Galactic, are far more competent and challenging than before, with many actually catching me off-guard with how smart the AI is. They even make use of more competitive items and strategies, which is a massive step-up from just holding Sitrus Berries. And the backgrounds and other effects are some of the best we've seen. I have to give ILCA props on how much they improved the battles and the AI, as they have done a far better job at that than GF ever did. I agree with anyone who feels that ILCA should do any and all battle-related plans for future games, as they knocked that out of the park.

The Grand Underground, where I probably spent most of my time in the original games, is even more addicting than before. Spheres actually have a real purpose now, and you can amass hundreds of them with ease so you can get goodies like TMs and such. And the Hideaways are always a blast, as you'll never know what Mons you'll find. Speaking of TMs, while I'm still miffed at the whole "TMs one-time use" thing again, I am very pleased that they're not as scarce as in the past, as you can buy valuable ones for dirt-cheap, either with Poke Dollars, Spheres, or BP, which is a massive plus compared to how they were almost one-per-file in the originals. Plus, whenever you get a TM from someone they give you 3-5, depending on who it is, which is nice.

And, of course, I cannot express my gratitude over the Hidden Moves app on the Poketch. Such a genius idea. The Poketch was already a great little gimmick but by giving it the ability to use HMs without the need of actually wasting a moveslot or even team slot on them was brilliant. It makes building teams far less restrictive and gives you the opportunity to explore new options that you wouldn't have been allowed to use prior.

Overall, these games are some of the best remakes we've had in a while. They're not perfect, obviously, but I rank them very highly. In my own personal rankings I put these games as second best of all the remakes, just behind ORAS, and vastly superior to HGSS, LGPE, and FRLG (granted, I haven't played the latter but I know enough about them to rank them accordingly). While I do miss the Platinum additions I won't deny that these games are really underrated. While they're a bit too faithful at times I will give plenty of credit where it's due, as ILCA really did an outstanding job.

 

[Poke Dragon]

Of all the times following Pokemon was handled in the recent games, BDSP did it the best because it was a feature that should've always had the ultimate convenience when it comes to it. So it basically lets you choose any Pokemon from your party to follow you, not just the first slot like the previous games had, plus it's so easy to disable it when you don't want it anymore, visual things like that are always good to make it easy on.

 

[charlycicero]

Man, oh man, I did really enjoy a few things about this game:

1. How challenging were the Elite Four and Cynthia battles.
2. The chibi style. It is adorable
3. Playing with cute mythicals like Manaphy right off the bat
4. Finally playing with Spiritomb. I didn't bother to catch it in Shield, and when I finally played Diamond for the first time, it was too late for the underground encounters since the online service for that game was already shut down
5. The hideaways with overworld Pokemon were a cool addition. They made way easier to catch rare Pokemon like Munchlax or female Combee.

I still look forward to the Home compatibility so I can play with more Pokemon early in a playthrough.

 

[Boss1708]

Guys I just found out something really cool about BDSP. I was extensively testing it last night. So in BDSP, Trainer Customization actually makes a visual change to the game's interface, in several ways:

1. The Bag Menu changes to reflect which Bag you are currently wearing. It even changes which type of Items goes in which Bag pocket.

2. Your in-battle menu Bag pocket also changes to the Bag shape you're currently wearing.

3. The Map indicator that shows where we are currently in Sinnoh also changes depending of what clothing style we are wearing atm (different Hats, no hat, headwear, etc).

I think BDSP is the first game in the series to do this, ever since XY introduced Trainer Customization in 2013? I just love the amount of attention to detail in BDSP.

 

[Silktree]

This is a short thread.

 

[Artuditwo]

I rrly like ball seals

, and the fact that pokemon follow u

 

[MobiusKipper]

I really like the fact that pokemon follow you haha, thats the main one, and I also like poffin making, I never got to play the original gen 4, so this is new, at least to me. This also is one of the only pkmn games that seemed like a challenge, to me, at least. Gen 5 was also pretty hard, (curse you, Lenora!) and while the post-game is lackluster, I do like mining in the underground to get the dynashard things, or whatever the game calls them.
EDIT: I also really like the DS sounds mechanic. I think that is pretty cool.

 

[charlycicero]

I also like the idea that we will have most Pokemon species included in Switch games, once BDSP is compatible with HOME. Only about 60 species are still incompatible with any Switch Pokemon game (without taking Legends Arceus into consideration), provided ILCA does it right. Meaning, we can use most Pokemon we have accrued from other games as far as Gen 4. Gen 3 if one still has usable DS with slot for GBA games and a copy of Gen 3 GBA games.

 

[Crisbee Donut]

I enjoy the Pokemon following, except when it's broken on the route 212. Garchomp's following animation also shows how it flys aound, never really visualized until this point (from what I know).

 

[SkyeMcFlye]

I love the contests (even if they're dumbed down a bit), the cute animation style, and the revamped underground! I loved being able to catch Houndour pretty early.

 

[Gengarzilla]

I can honestly say, without exaggeration, that I have not overall enjoyed a main series game this much since B2W2 way back when. XY, ORAS, SM, USUM, LGPE, SWSH, almost ten bloody years of mainline games that just didn't do it for me in various ways, and then BDSP comes along. Somehow in spite of its many many flaws, I ended up having actual fun with this one which is far more than I can truly say for Gens 6 and 7 and the then-entirety of Gen 8. No badly done alternate reality plot, no random Gen 1 pandering from absolutely nowhere, no clumsy surprise villains, no absurd Rainbow Rocket style postgame, BDSP held none of those turnoffs from recent games which made me think "ew, no".

LA definitely overtook BDSP in fun factor while also being structurally sound, of course, but you get the point.

 

[Kelleo]

As a faithful remake, it is great, yeah. But I do still wish it wasn't quite so faithful. This is my only beef with the games though, I otherwise love returning to my favorite region.